During his Nov. 13 speech, the Rhode Island Democrat argued that "the polls show clearly that climate denial is a losing tactic..."

C. Eugene Emery Jr.

[Mostly True] PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Sheldon Whitehouse has now made 50 speeches on the floor of the U.S. Senate urging his colleagues and other Americans to "wake up" about the issue of climate change. He has railed against global warming skeptics, many of them Republicans who say that the planet is not warming or, if it is, the warming isn't caused by human activity.

During his Nov. 13 speech, the Rhode Island Democrat argued that "the polls show clearly that climate denial is a losing tactic" and young people aren't fooled by the arguments of climate change "deniers."

PolitiFact Rhode Island has fact-checked two other Whitehouse statements from his previous speeches about climate issues. We ruled his claim that the oceans "have become 30 percent more acidic" Mostly True; his assertion that Narragansett Bay waters have gotten 4 degrees warmer in the winter since the 1960s earned a Half True.

In his Nov. 13 speech, one of the poll numbers he cited caught our eye.

"Fifty three percent of young Republican voters -- Republican voters under age 35 -- said that they would describe a climate [change] denier as 'ignorant,' 'out of touch,' or 'crazy,'" Whitehouse said.